Tag Archives: social media

There is a lot of information being pushed out online, and getting your message read is not always the easiest thing to do.

Here are 5 tips to help you stand out from your competition online:

1. Identify your customers pain points and explain how you can help solve them.

2. Keep it simple – blogging and social media marketing doesn’t have to be difficult. Keep it simple, focused and streamlined.  Make sure you stay in your professional lane.

3. Focus on quality  vs. quantity.  If you only have time to blog once a month, than make sure that blog post adds value to those reading it.  Same goes for social media.  Stuffing your platforms with content is never a good idea unless that content is relevant to your audience and provides useful information.

4. Collaborate with like-minded professionals. This is a great way to extend your brand and meet amazing folks who are on similar business journeys.

5. Be responsive.  If a comment or question is made on your blog or posted on your social media be sure to respond. It shows that you are invested and engaged with your community.

While the dog  days of summer brings warmer weather, backyard barbecues, and additional time with family, your business shouldn’t take a vacation.

Here are three tips to help keep your business moving forward through the remainder of the summer months.

 

1. Stay Visible

Schedule social media posts, newsletters, and even emails to go out throughout the summer months to make sure your business and your services stay top of mind to your customers.  Outsource these tasks to a virtual marketing assistant who, with a little direction, can do all the work and monitor your online presence.

2. Start a project

If you are staying put, this is a great time to upgrade your website, brainstorm new ideas or revisit old ones with your team.  With a little extra bandwidth in your schedule you can focus your energy on continued education. Take an online course, or volunteer some time with a local organization.

3. Reinvent yourself

While your clients are away, take this time to work on you.  Join a gym, get a walking or bike riding program in place.  Change your sleep patterns to get up earlier during the week.  By taking care of YOURSELF you will be better equipped to take care of your business and your clients for the remainder of the year and beyond..

 

Earlier this week we discussed the many different social media platforms businesses are using in their marketing plan. Updating your social media accounts, monitoring and responding to the engagement is key to having a successful social media marking campaign, but most of us just don’t have the time in our day to devote to one more task.  Having a virtual marketing assistant is an investment you need to make in your business now.

A virtual marketing assistant can:

      1. Pull content off your website, blog, e-books and training materials and create short concise social posts that lead someone back to your website.
      2. Update your social sites by scheduling posts using tools like:
        Hootsuite
        Buffer
        Social Oomph
        TweetDeck
        SproutSocial
      3. Monitor and respond to engagement, or notify you if engagement is needed.
      4. Set-up contests or promotions using 3rd party tools like:
        Upickem
        Wildfire
        Shoutlet
        ShortStack
      5. Research and share trends or information related to  help educate your followers about your business or services.
      6. Monitor your reputation management on review sites like:
        Yelp
        Epinions.com
        AngiesList.com
        MerchantCircle.com

Remember that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter help drive traffic to your website so that someone buys your product or service, joins your email list or makes a donation. Publishing useful content on a blog and promoting it through social networking also helps you achieve better organic search engine optimization (SEO) results.  Sharing tools on social sites creates a viral opportunity for your business that didn’t exist before the launch of social media.

Have you invested in your social media marketing yet?  Are you attempting to do it on your own?  How is that working for you?

Social media is a term no one had even heard of 10 years ago.  Today it is a vital part of every marketing campaign of major brands and retailers.  As a small business owner we tend to watch what the “big brands” are doing and scale it down to fit our time and resource budgets.
Social media is an increasingly important business tool for communication, promotion, recruitment, and lead generation, and there are many different social media sites.  Understanding what site you should be on and why can be daunting.

The social networking sites businesses are utilizing today include:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google+
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • Foursquare
  • Yelp, and many more.

The options can be overwhelming and many small business owners are not sure which social media tools may be most effective or the best way to get started. .  A professional virtual marking assistant can help you determine what social networking site you should focus on and he/she can help you set up and mange your social marketing strategy.

Later this week we will discuss specifically how a virtual marketing assistant can be a vital part of your social media marketing team.